Staten Island GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and New Jersey Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer could not be at more opposite ends of the political spectrum - except when it comes to the idea drivers might have to pay extra to ride in Manhattan.
Gottheimer and Malliotakis on Monday launched a bipartisan effort to use federal powers to stop the MTA from imposing congestion pricing on the island.
Under an MTA proposal unveiled last week, drivers might have to pay as much as $23 to cross below 60th Street during weekday daylight hours. (There are multiple proposals on the table, and some of the scenarios have charges as little as $5.)
The MTA says congestion pricing will decrease traffic, improve air quality and fund upgrades to the city's transit infrastructure. Opponents decry it as nothing more than an extra tax on commuters, many of whom live elsewhere and won't share in many of those benefits.
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Gottheimer and Malliotakis said they will introduce legislation requiring the Transportation Department's inspector general to audit the billions of dollars in federal funds the MTA has received, and they raised the prospect of moving to cut off the agency's federal funding altogether.
"We should be doing more to incentivize people to come into Manhattan and come into our city," Malliotakis said at an event near the Manhattan side of the Lincoln Tunnel. "What the leaders of our city and state continue to do is urge people basically not to come into Manhattan."
They also called on E-ZPass to stop letting the MTA email customers about the congestion pricing proposal; Gottheimer blasted it as a "Soviet-era propaganda campaign."
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But Gottheimer and Malliotakis weren't the only opponents of the congestion pricing proposals speaking out Monday.
Rep. Ritchie Torres has said he supports the idea in principle - but the MTA's environmental assessment gave him pause. By the agency's own estimate, truck traffic will increase in the South Bronx as a result of their proposals, which Torres said could exacerbate already serious air quality problems in the area.
The South Bronx has one of the highest rates of asthma disease and death in the entire country, and Torres has pushed for capping traffic in the area.
Torres held a news conference Monday as well, calling for a review of the environmental impact assessment the MTA conducted, with the goal of lessening the traffic burden the new plan would have in the Bronx.
Community concerns are a key reason the plan is not yet final, MTA leadership emphasized Monday.
“We are doing outreach and the people making decisions will consider what’s happening with the Cross Bronx," MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said.
